@Dr.Inza: I like the details and will no doubt check out your edit at a later date. Unfortunately by the time I am finished working on HBP I'll be so sick of the movie I wouldn't enjoy your edit. It's on my list though.
I'm looking to find one avisynth filter setting that will correct the whole movie as best as possible. I have no interest in correcting scene by scene. Once I have what I consider best, I will post what I've used. If anyone wants to use it as part of a FanEdit, it'll be a simple matter of adding one line to your avisynth script (or in DVD Rebuilder) and encoding.
@All: Okay, I'm very near to watching a test copy of this (standard edition).
I have 2 scenes I'm a bit uncomfortable about the sound mix on. Anyone who is able to check them out on a 5.1 system and give feed back would have my thanks.
First: http://www.mediafire.com/?7ta9a4g257sbxdf (16.83mb)
This is NOT an extended scene but a correction to go with an added scene. Yes, it borders on fan edit territory, but the fact is the original editor cut a scene apart in order to disguise that a scene was removed. My problem is there was different scoring over the 2 half scenes. I've cleaned it up as best as possible. Let me know what you think.
From my NFO on this:
In the theatrical cut, in order to hide that a scene was deleted, the editor cut a scene in half and moved the first part before Harry finds Ron mooning for Romilda and the rest following the scene. It's actually quite awkward and the script confirms this change.
Harry's first scene knocking on Slughorn's office door has been moved. Some of the scene was salvaged and one line deleted. An additional shot was constructed to fill a deleted bit that was probably a reshoot.
Crazy dialog only tracks and surround only tracks were created to smooth the transitions.
The old scene order was: Harry talks to Slughorn in potions lab, Harry knocks on Slughorn's office door and is turned away, Harry finds Ron high on love potion, Harry again goes to Slughorn's office.
The new order is:
Harry talks to Slughorn in lab, Harry talks to Hermione in the common room, Harry goes upstairs to find Ron spaced out, Harry takes Ron to Slughorn's office.
Second: http://www.mediafire.com/?cbhx64n9tvacfwz (55.48mb)
Harry and Hermione Discuss Ron at Astronomy Tower. In the original cut this scene is drenched in "The Friends" score. The deleted scene is dialog and sound effects only.
Since the CD includes a download link to a "5.1 surround" version, I used that. Well, it's not so much 5.1 (it's stereo) and not really a perfect match to the film's mix once you run it through a DPLII decoder.
It seems pretty good to me, but the instruments move around the channels because of the difference in the mixes. If you all think it's bad I'll try again with the original CD's track upmixed. It might be better (or worse), but because it's a bit of a pain to sync the track I was in no hurry to try it.
I'm also concerned that Harry's voice has a bit more rumble-y bass in the deleted scene.
Again, input would be great. From here it's sync corrected English subtitles, preview the film, and rebuild the menus.